As a new entrepreneur in the landscaping business, you may be considering all the different contracts that you need to generate to help get your business started. Below you will find the different components of a landscape business plan that will help you maximize your customer base and be successful with all the services that you are planning to offer. If you take advantage of these different components, you will see that your business is set up for success now, and can also have the potential to grow into something larger in the future. Preparation on your part in the beginning will build a solid foundation for your business right now. These components will help you get your business organized as you start and continue to grow.
Decide on the Services You Want to Offer
As a landscaping company, you have a large amount of services that you can offer, depending on the needs of your clients in that area. When you draft your landscape business plan, lay out the basic services that you need, including mowing, edging, and plant maintenance around the properties.
You can also maximize your services to include other specialty services, such as land clearing and tree care. These are services that you will not do daily, but you will have clients who need these larger projects done periodically, and they can be great for revenue. Some of your clients may have specialty trees that need to be maintained, which is not always something that can be done by just anyone. Understanding how these trees need to be cut and trimmed can be the difference in whether they live or not.
Land clearing is also something that your regular clients may need periodically on properties that they own and use for other purposes. When they have someone wanting to add a home or utilize it as a commercial property, it will need to be cleared with the right equipment before they can move forward
Find Ways to Market Your Business
While many landscaping businesses have thrived off of clients seeing their work, a good landscape business plan will include new and modern ways to market the business so that you reach all your potential clients.
The best way to market your landscaping business today is to engage on social media. Take advantage of making business pages on different platforms. You can customize your content marketing to include updated status messages, video reels, and photos of the lawns that you are maintaining. These media networks are free, you just have to put in the work to keep updating them.
When you have your business page on social media and content marketing, you need to interact with your customers who reach out and follow your pages. It takes just a couple of hours a day to get online and review questions and concerns that may be brought up.
It is also important to market in your local area, taking advantage of traditional advertisement options on billboards and having your services listed on local business community boards. If you really want to get the attention of your locals, however, make sure to start small with sponsorship in local events and youth events. As your business improves and grows, you can contribute more and gain even more traction with your local community.
Get Insured
A big component of building your landscape business plan is to make sure that you have the right insurance for your business. There are some commercial insurance requirements that you will need to carry, such as worker’s compensation and commercial vehicle insurance. These policies are non-negotiable in most states.
You do not have to limit yourself to policies that are required, as there are several different insurance options you can get for your business of your choice. As a landscape business, you will want to consider getting policies like general liability insurance, contractor insurance, and others that give you protection as a business owner in the event of a liability case.
Keep in mind that you can add supplemental insurance to your policies, such as umbrella insurance. This type of coverage adds another layer of liability coverage that will protect your business assets, should you be found liable for damages beyond your standard liability coverage. You can get as much or as little of this as you want, but it is good practice to make sure you have enough to cover any assets that are tied to the business to keep you from going under.
Purchase Necessary Supplies and Equipment
The next step of your landscape business plan is to acquire the necessary supplies and equipment that you need to run your business day to day. Once you know what services you will be providing, you will need to make a list of the items you need for these services. Some of these supplies will include bed covers, standard, lawn equipment, and trailers to haul these supplies.
The most important equipment pieces that you need in a landscaping company are lawnmowers, edgers, trimmers, and weed whackers. You will also need to purchase trailers and have the right truck to haul this equipment. This equipment needs to be hauled by trucks that can carry lots of weight every day and can manage the towing that is required. Also, it is important to purchase commercial-grade equipment, as residential mowers are not able to keep up with the demand of a landscaping company.
To get the right equipment like a bed cover and supplies, you need to be making purchases with suppliers who sell equipment that is commercial grade and sell supplies at wholesale prices. If you attempt to purchase as you need from local home improvement stores, you could find yourself spending too much money and not generating the revenue that you should be.
If you are planning to start with more than one crew, you will need to make sure that you supply each crew with the same equipment and supplies to properly move forward with your business. When you need supplies, you must start building relationships with local vendors, such as mulch suppliers and wholesalers who sell the equipment that you need.
Learn About Beneficial Landscaping Techniques
Managing a lawn is more than just providing services to make it look nice. There are reasons for having someone professionally manage a lawn, and that should be a part of your landscape business plan. Your customers need to understand that while you intend to make their lawns beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, there are services that you provide to help improve the landscape.
The lawn is an ecosystem, and you want the lawn to continue growing beautifully, with healthy grass and plants. That’s only achieved with services like weed control, which removes the unwanted vegetation that tries to take over lawns.
Aeration is another service that is great for the dirt and the lawn in general. This is something that many homeowners and commercial properties may not understand that they need, but the grassroots need to grow and gain the nutrients that they need. When there are excessive weeds in the lawn, these roots may not be able to access the nutrients they need.
Another great service that benefits the lawn is fertilization. This does more than just make the grass thick, it keeps it healthy, especially when the weather has been questionable in the area. Over time, nutrients in the soil will start to deplete, and that means that the grass cannot get what it needs to be healthy. With fertilization, they can get these nutrients and replenish the roots right away. Fertilization is also good for the plants and shrubbery that is on the lawn, especially if they are competing with other plants for these same nutrients.
Properties with lots of trees will need beneficial services like leaf removal. When you have lots of build-up of leaves on a property, you can keep direct sunlight from different parts of the grass, which can cause it to die. Also, it will allow a nesting place for unwanted pests to take cover and start causing damage to the lawn. Once the leaves are removed, you can see what type of issues have truly developed. This is why leaf removal is important several times a year.
Research Other Services to Offer
You can expand your landscaping business plan to include services that aren’t necessarily lawn related, but add services that your clients in the area may need. In many places, there is a growing demand for tree removal services, since tree contractors are becoming scarce and taking larger contracts with power companies. This leaves many homeowners scrounging to find someone to help with the services they need and get these services done promptly.
If you decide to add something like this to your landscaping business plan, then you need to make sure you have the insurance and the crew available for these services. These skills may require your employees to climb trees and need special equipment to take on the service.
When you add tree removal service to your business, you can take these services a step further, making your own mulch from the trees you cut down, if you can keep the wood, and offer firewood. It is important to determine if the clients who want trees removed plan to keep the wood or want to have it removed as an additional service.
Expand Your Business Over Time
Make room in your landscape business plan for expansion in the next few years. While you do not need to offer these services right away, it is a good idea to have the potential to offer services that are similar to your business, and you can offer them instead of having your customers outsource another service to a different company.
For example, many landscaping companies find themselves ready to tackle hardscaping in a few years after gaining a significant customer base and getting an understanding of how hardscaping works. It is great to offer this service since many customers will want to have patios, walkways, and other types of paths on their property. Instead of having to work with two different companies, and you’re having to schedule your services around them, your business can expand to cover all these needs.
Irrigation management is also another service that you can add to your landscape business plan in the long run. Clients who have multiple properties and are very serious about their lawns will want a significant irrigation system to ensure their lawn is maintained year-round. As a landscaping company, you can manage all these factors, which allows you to have control over all the projects.
Another growing demand for some landscaping companies is artificial turf installation. Some areas are not able to grow natural grass and this is a way to have the lawn they so desperately want. Everyone isn’t able to install artificial turf, and this is a specialty that your company could break into if you have the demand and clientele.
Start Building Your Plan Today
If you are planning to start a landscaping company soon, make sure you go through these steps and build a solid landscape business plan for your company. You want to make sure that you are prepared now to get started, but that you also have the tools and ability to grow later if that is something that you are interested in. Do your business right and build it so that you are prepared to start and grow with your business, the right way. You do not want to get ahead of yourself, and you also want to be prepared once you are ready to take that step for expansion.